'Ice' implicated in crime spike

Latrobe Valley police say the drug 'ice' is partly responsible for an increase in crime across the region.

While thefts of and from motor vehicles have decreased in the Latrobe Valley, drug offences and crimes against the person have increased.

Latrobe Valley police Inspector Mick West says police have noticed an increase in the number of offenders carrying the drug or affected by the drug.

He says ice is having a devastating effects on the community.

"We think we're starting to get a handle on it and then we can [get] an upsurge in this and that's certainly not helping either category of crime," he said.

The Latrobe Community Health Service says ice users are more violent than heroin users.

Twelve per cent of people who access the health service say amphetamines, including ice, are their drug of choice.

The service's executive director of community support, Annmarie Kaiser, says the spike in people using ice is worrying.

"But generally people who used heroin were significantly less angry, violent than we see when people are using ice and it seems that ice is increasingly a factor in a number of assaults and crimes against the person," she said.